About Me

I took very early retirement from teaching in '06 and did some traveling in Europe and the UK before settling down to do some private tutoring. As a voracious reader, I have many books waiting in line for me to read. Tell me I shouldn't read something, and I will. I'm a happy, optimistic person and I love to travel and through that believe that life can be a continuous learning experience. I'm looking forward to traveling more some day. I enjoy walking, cycling, water aerobics & and sports like tennis, volleyball, and fastpitch/baseball. I'm just getting into photography as a hobby and I'm enjoying learning all the bits and bobs of my digital camera. My family is everything to me and I'm delighted to be the mother of two girls and the Gramma of a boy and a girl. I may be a Gramma, but I'm at heart just a girl who wants to have fun.

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Sweating

I absolutely HATE sweating! Unfortunately, in my drive to get to my goal weight, tone up my muscles, and become more heart healthy, I have to sweat. It's my body's way of cooling itself off from the extra heat that comes from my hardworking muscles. (What muscles?)Okay, so for a long long time I've been walking. Because of my bad back, I'm pretty limited in my activities - walking, swimming, cycling. I've walked around my neighbourhood to the point that I know almost every crack in the sidewalks AND I've even driven to places so I can walk in new surroundings. I'm getting bored walking aimlessly trying to work up a sweat. I've also done water aerobics but prefer that in the summer as I like to drive straight home afterwards to shower and do hair/makeup, etc.

So, the colder weather has prompted me to go to the local gym. I checked it out last week to see what equipment it has and today I actually went and used the recumbent exercise bike and the treadmill. For my first time there, I think I did quite well. Okay, I only did 20 minutes on the bike and 10 minutes on the treadmill, but I DID work up a sweat - ICK!

The view from the gym is lovely as it looks out on a grassy lawn area with mature trees that are now shedding their colourful leaves. There are the obligatory TVs there but I prefered to look at the *ss of the man running on the treadmill in front of me. He was already there when I arrived and was still there when I left. *sigh*

Tomorrow I'll go again and hopefully do 20 minutes on the bike and 20 minutes on the treadmill. Have to work up gradually, you know.

19 comments:

It's funny, but I hate sweating too. There are people who love it, can you believe it? But exercise is the best thing. I go on the treadmill three times a week, I started at 15 minutes, and have worked up to 25. But I can't do weights yet, because of my broken rib. *sigh* It still has to finish healing.

P.S. I LOVED the photo of the geese. It's just such a typical Canadian scene, isn't it?

Ah well, WC he wasn't there this morning. I did my 20 minutes on the bike and I thought I could do 20 on the treadmill, but after 10 minutes, I started to feel a bit dizzy, so got off. It will take a while, I guess, but I'll get there. Had a lovely but painful massage therapy afterwards and now am having a quiet afternoon, reading, drinking tea, etc.

Still terribly windy here but at least the sun is out at the moment. A huge pine tree crashed outside the gate to my little private lane and went through the fence. Lots of branches flying everywhere.

Well, I'm one of the love to sweat folks, but only under controlled circumstances, exercise being one. If I don't sweat when I exercise, then I don't call it exercise. Think of all the toxins you realease when you sweat.

Actually it's quite healthy to sweat and you lose that ability as you get older. When I started at the gym three years ago I hardly sweated at all but now I do and that's a good thing. I hate the bike since I can't read there and it's so boring. I do more on the treadmill where I can read and the weight machines.I think it was windier out your way than here in Southlands although it was quite windy.

I do a set of Chinese exercises that work totally the opposite way. When I first saw them I laughed - I'm not now because they are very hard to do. They are about standing still and I mean still and yet relaxed without so much as moving a muscle - for half an hour at a stretch. The first ten minutes are spent trying to relax every single muscle. Yeah, sounds easy doesn't it? Try it - you'll see what I mean. I have not yet attained the last position which is with one leg in the air and one arm above the head - I can only last 2 minutes. A half hour sounds like an awfully long long long time! These are called "The Way Of Energy" and are by Master Lam

I went to the gym for a year and half straight (seven days a week) -- dropped my weight from 170 lbs to 138 lbs. My wife's friends, showing their concern, asked her if my cancer had come back. I got tired of being a gerbil on a wheel, quit the gym, and now I'm at 160 lbs. I guess the key is to keep going ... oh ... and lay off the spirits.